Summer SAVY, Session 2 Day 3, Playing with Words (1st – 2nd)
Happy Thursday, SAVY Families!
I hope this post finds you well and rested after a meaningful day off on Wednesday. Today, your scholars jumped right back into their hard work of wordplay. We explored persuasive writing, analogies, and homonyms, and expanded our working knowledge of figurative language. Our learning objectives for today were: I can use the Hamburger Model to organize my persuasive writing; I can develop or enhance my persuasive writing skills; I can develop analogical reasoning skills; I can analyze personification in poetry; and I can describe homophones and homonyms and tell the difference.
We began our day by playing a fun review game using hand-held whiteboards as we differentiated between similes and metaphors, generated adjectives and nouns with correlating characteristics, and enjoyed some good old-fashioned competitive learning. Students showcased their knowledge retention and their ability to demonstrate sportsmanly conduct. I was most proud of them!
Next, we read the story, Owl Moon, and did some writing reflections on a time when students felt most brave. We practiced comparing and contrasting these experiences with the main character in the story and completed a Literature Web to organize our thoughts about the story. We tied back in our change generalizations as we drew pictures and comparisons of changes they have undergone since they started school in kindergarten. Students created a trifold piece of art with drawings of themselves as a baby, now, and in the future to cement our understanding of these generalizations.
After a quick snack, we went back into writing. We introduced the Hamburger Model graphic organizer to students to organize their introduction, reasons, and conclusion in persuasive writing. We analyzed a story on movement and did a cut-and-paste activity that required us to logically sequence rational ideas in the story, and then we wrote a persuasive paragraph on a topic that was important to us. Selected topics included, “Should students have homework?” and “What is the best Pokemon?” among other creative ideas.
After lunch, we paired up and used a writing checklist to do some peer analysis of each other’s writing, using the “Glows” (positive aspects of the writing) and “Grows” (areas for improvement) method of providing feedback. Next, we learned all about analogies as we read the poem, “Daisies,” and created our own analogies.
In our last lesson of the day, we worked on understanding words in context as we brainstormed a list of words that have more than one meaning (e.g., The elephant’s trunk was carrying a trunk). We read the book, “Dear Deer,” by Gene Baretta to illustrate this concept and then learned the difference between homophones and homonyms. We added these words to our WordPlay booklet illustrating the various types of words and figurative language we’ve been learning throughout the week. Finally, we read “Amelia Bedelia” by Peggy Parish and discussed what made Amelia confused. We finished the day off with a Design, Describe, and Write challenge using STEM materials, where students had to design two visual representations of homonyms, and then, their classmates had to guess what they had created. Their guessing was great, and students needed only minimal hints. We also had time for a brief game of “Emotion Charades” where students had to identify classmates’ feelings by their body language and facial expressions, working on our emotional capacity and social-emotional skills. We are looking forward to wrapping up SAVY tomorrow by completing our WordPlay study and sending your students off with a host of new knowledge and a deeper understanding of our language, how it changes, and how creatively it can be used.
Some questions for extension this evening:
- What is the Hamburger Model, and how does it help you in your writing?
- What is an analogy, and how do they work in writing?
- What is a homonym? What is a homophone? Can you tell me the difference between the two?
- How can you use personification in your writing?
- What’s your favorite type of figurative language that you’ve learned so far?
- Can you explain the phrase “shades of meaning?” (e.g., the difference between words like happy and elated)
See you tomorrow!